The present invention generally relates to ovens used for cooking and baking and more particularly to ovens that are portable and that are particularly adapted to baking pizzas and other flat food items.
Portable ovens for baking pizzas are widely known. Typically, such ovens include a heat source below a flat stone or ceramic plate, often called a “pizza stone,” on which the pizza is supported. The pizza stone has a high thermal mass and evenly and efficiently distributes the heat to the bottom of the pizza so that the bottom of the pizza is evenly baked. The problem with such conventional ovens is that, due to the substantial temperature differences between the pizza stone and the air above the pizza, the bottom of the pizza bakes more quickly than the top, causing the pizza to either be underdone on the top or overdone or burnt on the bottom.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,365,833 discloses a pizza baking pan that attempts to overcome the problem of uneven baking by providing a support plate for the pizza stone that allows heat from the heat source below the stone to circulate up into a covered region above the stone to raise the temperature above the pizza and accelerate baking of the pizza's top side. However, the approach disclosed in the '833 patent has disadvantages. First, it relies on a dome-shaped cover to trap heat circulated up to upper chamber formed beneath the dome. The dome-shaped cover traps heat circulated up from the heat source below the pizza stone, and does not efficiently and evenly concentrate the heat where it needs to be, namely, across the top of the pizza. The top of the pizza is typically wetter than the bottom crust, and thus needs more heat than the crust to bake. For example, where the bottom of the pizza may bake at 500 degrees Fahrenheit, the top may require 700 degrees to cook at the same rate. With a dome shaped cover it is found that the temperature rise at the top of the pizza is still insufficiently high to accelerate baking of the top of the pizza enough to keep up with the baking of the bottom of the pizza.
A second disadvantage of the dome shaped cover as taught by U.S. Pat. No. 5,365,833 is that the cover traps moisture given off by the pizza, which could cause the top of the pizza to become soggy and under-cooked.
The present invention overcomes the drawbacks of prior portable pizza ovens by providing a portable pizza oven that evenly bakes the top and bottom of the pizza, that bakes the top of the pizza to the same degree as the bottom of the pizza, and that prevents moisture emitted by the top of the pizza from causing the top of the pizza to become soggy and under-cooked. These advantages are achieved passively without adding additional heat sources to the oven.